Making One’s Own Luck
The five enthusiastic ladies, who founded the Women’s Future Center in Lviv, have always been aware that time and chance will only very rarely help one who does nothing for him/herself. You must create a chance with your own hands. This is why they were actively raising funds for several years to establish a women’s refuge — for those who need help. One of the places the women turned to for help was the Kuwait Red Crescent Society. The latter soon emailed that it had allocated $10,000 US to renovate the premises! Without asking any tedious questions, taking the women’s words at their face value and, surprisingly for us, without getting on our nerves at all, the country of Islam and of what we consider traditional female oppression earmarked not-so-small funds to strengthen female self-sufficiency (to be more exact, to create minimal decent conditions). Yet, to receive this money, the Lviv supplicants had to explain apologetically that they had no acquaintances in Kuwait and that the funds would benefit the common good.
The situation was difficult in that they failed to find a place for the shelter in the public sector. But the tireless women decided to organize the refuge at the country house of Women’s Future psychologist Svitlana Vdovina.
“I finally understood that I would allow my house to be used as shelter when a woman came to our center, who said her husband tried to drown her,” Ms. Vdovina admits. “I can’t possibly describe the horror this poor woman went through. We saw that the victim needed to weather the storm somewhere, get herself together, and decide what to do next. But where could she do it? The truth is that we often get women who suffer from domestic violence and abject humiliation and, frankly, gradually losing not only their own dignity but also any hope of finding a way out. At these moments they really need a refuge, psychological aid, and simple human warmth. Such refuges exist in the overwhelming majority of civilized countries. A large and rationally-organized (on public funds, incidentally) shelter functions in Kyiv. The Caritas and Winrock International charitable organizations have helped to set up shelters in Ternopil and Rivne, respectively. And now Kuwait offered to help Lviv.”
However, it was not so easy to get this money in Ukraine, although the women’s nonprofit organization in question is well known and enjoys high prestige and trust. In Lviv oblast, Women’s Future is perhaps the only place where a woman can have various free courses that contribute to her growth as a person. She will be consulted on any issue even when governmental agencies decline to help her.
Center director Liubov Maksymovych made strenuous efforts for six months to have the Kuwaiti money at last channeled into renovation. Unfortunately, a fifth of this amount has not yet been received. The Red Cross of Ukraine, a go- between in this matter, still doubts that such a lucky chance is possible at all.
The center takes a different view. Yes, it was sheer luck for those poor and downtrodden women who need a temporary shelter, especially when they come back from Germany or Holland, where they were forced into prostitution. When they need to relax and heal over for a month or two... When a battered wife and her children end up on the street with no ID... When a teenage girl hides from a drunken stepfather rapist...
Ms. Vdovina’s house has hosted training sessions and workshops for over a year. The center’s women employees come here on weekends to distract themselves and ease their minds. Now that a contract has been signed to use the premises as shelter for 15 years everything will be on a new level. Still, funds will have to be found to maintain it. But the women think this will also be “a star that fell on the palm of one’s hand.” For, by the law of justice, stars should always fall on callused hands.
